Rider on the Rain (1970) – 4/10. Bronson and Marlene Jobert, together again for the first time! While her husband is away, a young wife is attacked by a maniac. She responds by terminating him with extreme prejudice, then decides to dispose of the body and pretend nothing happened. Doesn’t mention it to the police, hubby, mummy. Still, is that what actually happened? Events are given a kind of dream-like quality, so it’s difficult to know for sure if what we’re seeing is actually occurring. Suddenly a Mysterious Stranger appears, someone who seems to know everything and takes great delight in needling the woman about what she’s been up to. It’s a kind of Repulsion meets Crime and Punishment, which is initially interesting, but ends up being disappointingly banal.

This is one of those films that was simultaneously shot in French and English, one slightly longer than the other (by 4 minutes) and in slightly different aspect ratios. The new Kino Lorber blu-ray has both versions, both looking very nice. I prefer the French version, although Bronson is dubbed; you have to play the English-language version to hear Mr. Buchinsky's pure dulcet tones.

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!

Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) - 9/10. Saw this almost exactly 40 years ago at the 1979 Chicago International Film Festival. I couldn't remember much about it and decided to try it again now that a restored version is touring. It was showing at Film Forum and I took the wife. She loved it. I also was impressed. Gian Maria Volonte plays Carlo Levi, an intellectual placed in internal exile by Mussolini during the war with Ethiopia (ca. 1935). This was made for Italian TV and it's a quality production in 4 parts. Part one is mostly Levi's journey to his place of exile, Lucania, the end of the world. In part 2 Levi's sister (Lea Masari) visits him, and he secures the services of a housekeeper (Irene Pappas). In part 3 he reluctantly begins providing the peasants with medical treatment (he trained as a doctor but heretofore never practiced). In part 4 he gets the better of his masters just before the war ends and his amnesty comes through. Based on, I gather, real events. It's an impressive bit of filmmaking at 220 minutes. I guess some feel this is Rossi's masterpiece and it certainly must be Volonte's.

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!

Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) - 9/10. Saw this almost exactly 40 years ago at the 1979 Chicago International Film Festival. I couldn't remember much about it and decided to try it again now that a restored version is touring. It was showing at Film Forum and I took the wife. She loved it. I also was impressed. Gian Maria Volonte plays Carlo Levi, an intellectual placed in internal exile by Mussolini during the war with Ethiopia (ca. 1935). This was made for Italian TV and it's a quality production in 4 parts. Part one is mostly Levi's journey to his place of exile, Lucania, the end of the world. In part 2 Levi's sister (Lea Masari) visits him, and he secures the services of a housekeeper (Irene Pappas). In part 3 he reluctantly begins providing the peasants with medical treatment (he trained as a doctor but heretofore never practiced). In part 4 he gets the better of his masters just before the war ends and his amnesty comes through. Based on, I gather, real events. It's an impressive bit of filmmaking at 220 minutes. I guess some feel this is Rossi's masterpiece and it certainly must be Volonte's.

saw it about 40 years ago also, thanks

"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!

The Wild Pear Tree (2018) - 8/10. Three hours of conversations among shifting characters, with the most significant communication occurring between a disaffected son and his father. I loved it. Filmed in and around Çan and Çanakkale, Turkey, using one of the Red cameras, it looks very good. I spent two weeks in Turkey in the summer of 1995, and I visited Çanakkale because it's where Troy is. At Troy, which is in a state of permanent excavation, someone had thrown up a creaky "Trojan Horse" and I ventured inside but quickly got out when I realized it could collapse at any minute. In Nuri Bilge Ceylan's film we see a similar wooden horse in Çanakkale, near the waterfront, a public monument of sorts. On IMDb I just discovered that it was a prop left over from Wolfgang Petersen's Troy (2004). Hah!

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!

Hereditary (2018) - 7/10Pretty good to really good horror flick, deserving of it's recent praise, but likely won't be talked about beyond this year.

I was slightly disappointed by the last 1/3 - ending, but then again, horrors are specifically hard to finish. More often than not the ending marks the difference between good and great ones. Still, there was a lot more thought they put in this one compared to the other horror cr*p that's coming crawling out of HW's as*hole these days. Good acting.

7.5/10

No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, the reflection always looks you straight in the eye.

I was slightly disappointed by the last 1/3 - ending, but then again, horrors are specifically hard to finish. More often than not the ending marks the difference between good and great ones. Still, there was a lot more thought they put in this one compared to the other horror cr*p that's coming crawling out of HW's as*hole these days. Good acting.

7.5/10

I was wrong about it not being talked about past this year. It is, and I still think about it now and then. Would rewatch.

Dogman (2018) - 4/10. Idiots, doing idiotic things, descend to new levels of idiocy. I liked Matteo Garrone's Gamorrah, and so had high hopes for this, but, needless to say, I was disappointed. The dogs were good.

« : April 18, 2019, 04:38:29 AM dave jenkins »

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!

I mean there aren't a lot of them that are even watchable. The huge majority of horror flicks are watch-and-forget shit with, when you're extremely lucky, a couple of good ideas and almost never a single "real" character. They just start with a premise they think nobody has ever executed (a child who's a killer! Someone did it already? Then a child who's a monk who's also a killer! Someone did it already? Then a child who's a monk who's also a killer but it's a found footage film. With zombies.) and then all copy the same formula.

It's a shame as the genre is in theory as open as scifi: it can effortlessly go from pure entertainment to ambitious philosophical study and everything in between. It is subdivided in tens of different subgenres that are built on as many different cultures. It's based on a great history of horror literature. It can easily be mixed with any other genre. It seems to be designed to work with image and sound better than any other genre. And yet, since the Italians have stopped making them, we've been stuck for decades with "truth or dare" clones.

I mean there aren't a lot of them that are even watchable. The huge majority of horror flicks are watch-and-forget shit with, when you're extremely lucky, a couple of good ideas and almost never a single "real" character. They just start with a premise they think nobody has ever executed (a child who's a killer! Someone did it already? Then a child who's a monk who's also a killer! Someone did it already? Then a child who's a monk who's also a killer but it's a found footage film. With zombies.) and then all copy the same formula.

It's a shame as the genre is in theory as open as scifi: it can effortlessly go from pure entertainment to ambitious philosophical study and everything in between. It is subdivided in tens of different subgenres that are built on as many different cultures. It's based on a great history of horror literature. It can easily be mixed with any other genre. It seems to be designed to work with image and sound better than any other genre. And yet, since the Italians have stopped making them, we've been stuck for decades with "truth or dare" clones.

OK, I see you have a point there. (Though I wouldn't thoroughly agree with it.)

No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, the reflection always looks you straight in the eye.

Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) - 9/10. Saw this almost exactly 40 years ago at the 1979 Chicago International Film Festival. I couldn't remember much about it and decided to try it again now that a restored version is touring. It was showing at Film Forum and I took the wife. She loved it. I also was impressed. Gian Maria Volonte plays Carlo Levi, an intellectual placed in internal exile by Mussolini during the war with Ethiopia (ca. 1935). This was made for Italian TV and it's a quality production in 4 parts. Part one is mostly Levi's journey to his place of exile, Lucania, the end of the world. In part 2 Levi's sister (Lea Masari) visits him, and he secures the services of a housekeeper (Irene Pappas). In part 3 he reluctantly begins providing the peasants with medical treatment (he trained as a doctor but heretofore never practiced). In part 4 he gets the better of his masters just before the war ends and his amnesty comes through. Based on, I gather, real events. It's an impressive bit of filmmaking at 220 minutes. I guess some feel this is Rossi's masterpiece and it certainly must be Volonte's.

Hah, it's on YT! I will finally watch it, if they don't delete it in the meantime! This made my day!

Note: looks like the quality is solid given it was recorded from TV (RAI), also no English subtitles (in case someone wants to watch it).

« : April 20, 2019, 08:49:13 AM Dust Devil »

No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, the reflection always looks you straight in the eye.